IMPLEMENTING EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES IN COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS

Stephen M. Haas, Ph.D., DirectorOffice of Research and Strategic Planning

JRSA Training and Technical Assistance WebinarAugust 15, 2013

Welcome

Presentations: Applying RNR in Effective Community Supervision: Strategic

Training Initiative in Community Supervision (STICS) Quantifying and Executing the Risk Principle in Real World

Settings

Key points: Building staff (PO) capacity to build collaborative working

relationships and apply cognitive-behavioral techniques (James Bonta)

Achieving adherence to the risk principle in practice, and importance of defining and measuring dosage (Kimberly Sperber)

Follows recent special issue of Justice Research and Policy, EBP in Community Corrections

JRP Special Issue

Series of articles relate to what is needed to better ensure fidelity to evidence-based practices in community supervision and treatment

Contemporary topics: STICS, Motivational Interviewing, Development, Implementation, and Systemic Impact of Risk Assessment, and Adherence to Risk Principle and Dosage

Justice Research and Policy

Toward Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Corrections:

Research and Strategies for Successful Implementation

Special Issue now available at http://jrsa.metapress.com!

Webinar

Presenters: James Bonta, Director of Corrections Research,

Public Safety Canada

Kimberly Sperber, Chief Research Officer, Talbert House - Cincinnati, Ohio

Moderator:   Stephen M. Haas, Director of the Office of

Research and Strategic Planning, West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services

The Importance of Program Fidelity

“If a program has been unable to adhere to the salient principles [of effective

correctional intervention] in a substantive meaningful way, the expectation of

observing a significant decrease in re-offending is predictably diminished.”

- Rhine, Mawhorr, and Parks (2006), Criminology and

Public Policy

Current Practice and Challenges

The scientific evidence for what makes for effective community supervision and treatment is abundant and continues to grow

Long-term prospects of the current EBP movement hinge, in a large part, on the capacity of the field to address known barriers to successful implementation

That is, improve adherence to principles and practices that are known to work. This is the issue of fidelity (or “how well” EBP is done) Requires systematic measurement (treatment integrity,

dosage, etc.), performance monitoring/QA, and feedback

Current Practice and Challenges

Much is known about what impacts the successful implementation of EBP in corrections: Organizational culture/leadership Poor staff attitudes and orientation toward service delivery Poor staff selection, training, and competence Poor monitoring/feedback to staff Lack of evaluator involvement Absence of clinical supervision of staff

To overcome barriers, many believe this requires:1. Greater use of the knowledge and lessons learned in the

emerging “implementation science” (i.e., drivers); 2. Navigating from thinking about evidence-based

programs as an intervention to “evidence-based decision making;”

3. Recognizing the unique role and necessity for researcher/evaluator involvement

1. Science of Implementation

Fixsen et al., 2005

2. Toward Evidence-Based Decision Making

EB decision-making in large-scale, real world correctional environments

Has its own set of demands: Develop organizational leadership and policy/procedural

development; Moving supervision officers to “change agents” Staff capacity to weight scientific evidence against

individual needs/circumstances and available resources Training on key skills (e.g., core correctional practice,

cognitive-behavioral techniques, MI, offender assessment, and case planning)

Monitoring supervision integrity and performance

3. Importance of Evaluator Involvement

Presence of program planners and evaluators in implementation and ongoing monitoring = larger effect sizes

Recognize the inherent complexity in transferring EBP to the field, use multiple measures/sources for process implementation

Quality assurance mechanisms/performance measures for monitoring adherence and program planning Defining and quantifying “what is meant by supervision/treatment;” Refining measures of “quality” versus “quantity”…focusing on

treatment integrity Ascertain how RNR principles are “operationalized” in the field

Through measurement we can fill gaps in our understanding of what leads to good implementation, and what does/does not work and under what condition!

Contact Information

Stephen.M.Haas@wv.gov 558-8814 ext. 53338

Stephen M. Haas

Important links:http://www.djcs.wv.gov/SAC/

http://www.facebook.com/wvorsphttp://www.twitter.com/wvorsp